Story by Tendai Munengwa
THE government has reduced the rate at which the national herd was being depleted due to outbreaks of January Disease by 46 percent following the release to farmers of bolvac vaccines being produced at a New Veterinary Service Laboratory.
As part of efforts to contain the outbreak of the devastating Theriolisis popularly known as January disease, the government moved in to introduce a number of mitigating measures such as the Presidential Tick Grease Programme, which saved thousands of cattle from the deadly pandemic.
“We want to thank the Second Republic for the resources to rehabilitate dip tanks. By 2023 to 2025, we have rehabilitated 560 dip tanks and we are encouraging our farmers to religiously dip their cattle so that we achieve 100 percent dipping, complementing it with the tick grease programme and save our national herd,” the Chief Director for Veterinary Services in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, Dr Pious Makaya said.
In addition to the tick-grease programme, the establishment of a new Veterinary Services Laboratory in Harare which dished over 300 000 bolvac vaccines has turned out to be a game changer in scaling down on cattle deaths.
“As from summer 2023, the introduction of inter ticker bone dipping and monitoring programmes, cattle dipping has improved to 64 percent and if it goes up to 100 percent, then we will be out of danger. We want to applaud government for mobilising resources to establish the laboratory.
“We have distributed over 300 000 vaccines which have proved to be a best vaccines for theriolisis. Now that we are capable of producing it here, we encourage our farmers to use it as it has proved to contain the disease,” Dr Makaya noted.
In the last few years, Zimbabwe has lost around half a million cattle to January Disease and the manufacturing of the bolvac vaccines locally is playing a key role in efforts to rebuild the country’s national herd.
